Posted on 04/30/2023 8:43:38 PM PDT by Krosan
Émile P. Torres calls one of the most influential philosophies of our time an ideology: Longtermism is the central school of thought of tech giants like Elon Musk and Skype founder Jaan Tallinn. In an interview, Torres explains why it is so dangerous.
Elon Musk has made headlines in recent months for his role as head of Twitter, which has seen him fundamentally transform the platform. What is less well known is that he is spending money to fund organizations whose mission is to fight artificial intelligence, which is supposedly threatening humanity.
The Future of Life Institute is also being advised by Musk. In the media, the institute caused a stir with an open letter warning of the destructive power of a possible superintelligence and calling for a pause in the development of new AI models.
Another organization that enjoyed funding from Musk is the Future of Humanity Institute. This is an interdisciplinary research center at Oxford University. Its director is the influential Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. He is a leading proponent of longtermism, a variety of effective altruism (EA). Both schools of thought call for research to be concentrated where it can have the greatest long-term positive impact on humanity.
An inhumane ideology
What may sound plausible at first, however, is the source of massive criticism. Émile P. Torres, currently a PhD candidate at Leibniz University Hanover and active on Twitter as @xriskology, explains the ideology behind effective altruism and longtermism in this interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at netzpolitik.org ...
Maybe, but both stock-driven quarterly-results planning and soviet-style 5-year rigid plans have not gotten us anywhere.
The results are so bad companies have let their DIE (oops, DEI) divisions take over and implement “this is terrible for the consumer, the business, the shareholder and everyone, but FU” planning.
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